


You've got an eagle under your skin

by Greyneurosis (Spylace)



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Fluff and Crack, M/M, Mostly Crack, Raleigh is the most ridic superhero ever, Secret Identity, use of porn names, watch out for cliches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-07
Updated: 2014-08-07
Packaged: 2018-02-12 01:48:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2091285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spylace/pseuds/Greyneurosis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On a Thursday, Raleigh dies and is reborn as <strike>Thor</strike> Gipsy Danger, Shatterdome's newest superhero.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You've got an eagle under your skin

**Author's Note:**

> As with all things, I found this prompt on the kink meme :D
> 
> Un-betaed

Raleigh died on a Thursday.

It didn’t matter; he got better. But two seconds was enough for his brother to start screaming like the star actress in a horror film. The two morons who’d been driving drums of chemical waste in their car blubbered as he lurched back to life, complete with sound effects, picking at the glowy shit covering his arms.

In his haste, he accidentally jolted himself. The electricity crawling up and down his arm.

“Holy shit.” Raleigh said, staring at his hand. “I’m Thor.”

 

“You can’t be Thor.” Yancy explained patiently because he was a nerd. “Thor’s already taken. You need to pick another name.”

Raleigh pouted at the injustice of it all.

 

The first thing he saved with his powers was a kitten. A little itty bitty thing stuck in a tree. Yancy didn’t let him keep it. Because his heart was a soulless coal.

“No.” His brother said, slapping down their lease. “It’s because I _don’t_ want to lose the deposit.”

The second time was for real.

But the thing was that Shatterdome already had a super hero. Three in fact. If he was going to do shit, he needed help. Lots of help. He didn’t exactly stage his second act of heroism but he did drive to the worst part of town and sat there while Yancy fended off parking tickets and potential carjackers because sooner or later, somebody would need help right?

“Do you think I should design my own costume?”

“I think I should get out of here but hey, what do I know?” Yancy griped.

“It’s okay bro.” Raleigh assured him. “I’ve got your back.”

 

The screams started around ten-fifty but he was too slow to react because of reasons. Honestly, Raleigh thought it was one of his brother’s morning alarm and kept playing Candy Crush on his phone until Yancy ripped the earbuds from his ear and kicked him out of the car yelling “show time!”.

Gleefully, Raleigh plotted a course of action. Through trial and error, he discovered his set of powers included super strength, endurance, flying and electricity. He found that he couldn’t throw lightning like Thor but he was more than capable of shorting out an entire grid with a flick of a switch. Now was a good a chance as any to try it out on a person. He rubbed his hands together and got to work.

 

He made the front page news thanks to Yancy who took a blurry ass shot of him subduing a teenager. Apparently, his touch worked like a taser.

It was awesome.

“Gipsy Danger?!” He shrieked, tossing the paper in Yancy’s face. His brother looked up with a befuddled face.

“...What?”

“They used my porn name.” He stressed. “Not even a cool name, it’s my porn name.”

Yancy yawned.

“Maybe it’ll keep your ass from being locked up in jail.”

The doorbell rang.

Him and Yancy looked at each other.

“ _Shit_.”

 

Chuck Hansen was an officer from the Shatterdome Police Department, whip-smart and entirely unamused at being hauled out of bed on a Saturday morning. “We have a strict regulation for Supers in this city. If you’ve got information, spit it out or stop wasting my time.”

“I swear, I don’t know.”

“If you’re lying,” Chuck the shmuck grumped. “I will charge you with obstruction of justice.”

Raleigh chewed on a jam-soaked toast as he watched the police officer tear Yancy a new one.

“I just took the photo.”

“And you happened to be there why?”

Chuck was pretty young like he was fresh out of the academy. Trying to prove himself in the big, wide world.

Yancy raised his hands in supplication.

Eyes growing sharp the young man asked, “Just what kind of work do you do Mr. Becket?”

 

“It’s not funny asshole!”

Yancy, after punching him the arm and suffering for it.

“Now the police thinks I’m a porn star!”

 

After a week of running around in his jeans and leather jacket, his costume arrived fresh out of a box.

“Jesus.” Said Yancy when he saw the clashing colors of metallic blue and canary yellow. “I can’t believe you.”

“Hush.” Raleigh cooed, trying on the helmet. “You’re just jealous.”

“You know everyone can see your junk in that.”

 

“Hey, why don’t you pick on someone your own size?”

The mugger rolled his eyes beneath his ski mask.

“Oh great, another one of you freaks.”

Offended, Raleigh tazed him and dropped him off in front of the police station.

 

Yancy’s photography skills improved in proportion to Officer Hansen’s suspicions. The kid dropped by nearly every day with picture du jour clipped smartly in his notes. There was a picture of Gipsy Danger eating an ice cream cone, his jawline thankfully disguised by a blurry thumb. Gipsy Danger in midflight. Gipsy Danger blotting out the sun. Yancy glared when Chuck showed him a selfie Raleigh took while his brother had been in the shower.

“I swear, I don’t know this man.”

Despite Officer Hansen’s ardent attentions, the heroic Gipsy Danger did not meet his nemesis until a month into his role as Shatterdome’s newest superhero.

There was an ongoing bank robbery downtown and their daily date with Chuck had been cut short because of it. The thieves wanted a hostage to guarantee their safety and Officer Hansen, the noble idiot, actually went through with it.

“Ray, are you sure?” Yancy hissed. “You’re going to be on national TV!”

“You think mom would be proud?” Raleigh asked, squeezing into his uniform. “I mean, she did tell me to make something of myself.”

In a tone reserved for younger siblings, Yancy said “You could at least, use a cup.”

 

Gipsy Danger could not run as fast as Crimson Typhoon but he could fly and before he knew it, he’d tossed the ringleader aside, bullets doing little more than to tickle his stomach.

“You!” Chuck snarled, nostrils flaring in anger as he hobbled to his feet.

“Me!” Raleigh said cheerfully.

He blinked when the officer cuffed his wrists. One of the triplets stopped at his side and making sure everything was in order, dashed away.

“Wow, you’re kidding right?”

“I had everything under control.” Chuck said grimly. “Gipsy Danger, you are under arrest for illegal vigilantism and destruction of—what the fuck?! Put me down!”

Chuck was like that kitten he saved when he first learned to use his powers. Despite all the clawing and spitting, he held on tight with his knees and arms, squeezing his eyes against his chest. Raleigh brushed a hand through his cropped ginger hair to reassure him.

“Hey chill out, I won’t drop you okay?”

“I hate you and your fucking outfit and...”

Grinning, Raleigh flew through the rooftop.

The screams were worth it.

 

Raleigh frowned down at the young man.

“I said hold on, not strangle me.”

Chuck was too winded to reply.

 

“Wow, so do you get kidnapped on a regular basis?”

Chuck wheezed, “Never before you came around.”

 

Yancy crossed his arms.

“Really Raleigh, a police officer?”

 

Chuck dropped by a week after his latest exploit, foiling the kidnapping of a little girl. Even Crimson Typhoon praised him for that one. But with Gipsy’s pictures posted everywhere, courtesy of a new camera, the police were under heavy pressure to identify the vigilante in blue and yellow and bring him to justice.

“Mr. Becket.” The younger man greeted, bruises like dark thumbprints under his eyes. “Is your brother in this morning?”

Yancy actually wasn’t. Because he had a life—so he said. And he had a job. A normal, boring nine-to-five with lunch stuck in between.

Raleigh had just gotten off shift at the hospital and was about to open his front door. He was exhausted. Muddled. Vulnerable. In a critical moment of weakness, he stood aside and said, “Wanna come in for some coffee?”

“I think it’s too late to bribe me now.” Chuck commented.

Raleigh smiled.

A moment later, Chuck popped his neck and said “Alright. Why the hell not _Rals_? Lead the way.”

 

“Why do you guys need to catch this guy anyway?” Raleigh asked casually. “It’s not like he’s doing anyone harm.”

“He’s a menace to people with eyesight.” Chuck criticized.

Raleigh pouted and poured water in the espresso machine.

The other man continued, “It’s protocol. All Supers need to be registered with the SDPD.”

“That’s a stupid rule.” Raleigh interjected before realizing what he’d said and stuffed a fist in his mouth. “I mean, what if the bad guys find out who they really are?”

Chuck had a dark look on his face. Maybe he was rehashing all the flying lessons in his mind. For a boy in blue, Chuck had a surprisingly strong grip.

“The amount of overtime I’ve put into this because of the bastard? He’s not going to get off that easy.”

“Aha,” Raleigh laughed nervously. “Coffee?”

 

“Fuck mate.” Chuck said genuinely, arrested by the warmth of the coffee emanating from the mug. “I think I’m in love with you.”

And then he fucking dimpled.

 

Raleigh had to try very hard not to say ‘me too’.

 

They met up intermediately throughout the following months. Sometimes as Gipsy, other times as Raleigh. He treasured their time together. Tried to cut back on scaring the shit out of the kid by taking him up into the atmosphere.

He noticed that Chuck had an accent when he got excited or upset and mentioned it the next time he came around chez Becket as he plied him with waffles and more coffee.

“I was born in Sydney.” Chuck said, guzzling hot coffee like it was water. “My old man decided to move when I was eleven and here I am.”

 

“Here you are.”

The rumor on the street was that Officer Chuck Hansen was Gipsy Danger’s lover. Why else would he hold him in a bridal carry as he safely delivered the young man from the hands of evil?

Raleigh thought it hilarious at first. Couldn’t move without bursting into fits of giggles. But then enterprising villains, not just D-listers like Trespasser and Karloff but, actual bad guys like Knifehead began gunning for Chuck like he was in witness protection. Not one week went by without Chuck getting kidnapped or nearly getting kidnapped. Even Crimson Typhoon with their superfast reflexes had their hands full keeping track of him. It came to be that Chuck was literally chained to his desk which meant no more visits to Raleigh and Yancy.

“Hey.” He said, tapping the younger man’s cheeks. “Wake up. Chuck?”

With a groan, Chuck peeled his eyes open and threw up at his feet.

“Woah, you okay?”

“Jesus, what took you?”

Amused, Raleigh said “Well I did fight through bunch of Otachi’s minions.”

Chuck held his arms out.

“Get on with it.”

“Seriously.” Raleigh complained, hiding a grin against Chuck’s ear. Automatically, Chuck closed his eyes, his cheeks a dull flush tugging at his lips. “This is all the thanks I get for rescuing you?”

“The triplets would have gotten me sooner or later.”

Raleigh put a hand on the small of his back.

“So ungrateful.”

Chuck punched him in the ribs.

“This is all your fault anyway.”

 

His phone buzzed on a Friday afternoon.

Half asleep, Raleigh looked at it and paused.

 

“I thought we had something special.” Raleigh sniffed, curled up on the opposite end of the couch because Yancy refused to sit next to him.

To make his point, his brother threw a cushion at his head.

“Are you seriously jealous right now because he’s cheating on you… with you?”

“Well, when you put it that way.” Raleigh said irritably.

“So what did you tell him?” Yancy asked, taking the cushion back.

Burying his face in his hands, Raleigh mumbled “I said yes”.

 

Raleigh and Chuck began to date.

It became a regular thing, punctuated by random kidnappings, Chuck’s work and Gipsy Danger. When he was late for the third time in a row, Raleigh waved off the apologies and said wryly, “Gipsy?”

The younger man fumed.

“I swear I will nail that arsehole to the wall.”

Dusting off his jeans, Raleigh got up.

“It’s too late for the movie.”

Chuck looked stricken.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t notice the time.”

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. It’s fine. I know you’re busy.”

“Still.” Chuck grumbled, kissing him on the lips with a hug. “The drongo’s mucked everything else up, he doesn’t get to have you too.”

Touched, Raleigh invited “Why don’t we hang out at my place?”

The younger man winced.

“Won’t your brother mind?”

A brief thought went towards Yancy washed away quickly by a case of blue balls.

“Nah.” He replied. “C’mon, it’ll be just like the old times.”

“Hope not.” Chuck remarked, fluttering his eyelashes. His teeth cut through the dark. Fingers circling lower and lower. “I was thinking...”

It was at times like these Raleigh really wished that he could fly.

“Yeah...?”

 

They burst into Raleigh’s room giggling like a bunch of teenagers.

Chuck kicked the pile of laundry off the bed, taking a pull from his ill-gotten bottle of vodka.

“Why officer.” He purred. “I could get used to this side of you.”

“Don’t.” Chuck laughed, pressing vodka-flavored kisses into his neck. “Want to take you to nice places.”

He laid bright-eyed across the mattress as Raleigh pounced on him, tearing the bottle from his grip and setting it aside. Eagerly, his fingers pushed up the younger man’s shirt, tasting the salt on his skin and sweat under the seams. He was drunk on Chuck’s flavor, oblivious to the stomping down the hall. Chuck slapped him lightly on the ass and he jumped to the younger man’s sultry grin.

“You didn’t tell me you worked out.” Chuck smirked, tapping his pecs with his fingers.

“I don’t.” Raleigh said honestly.

Chuck flipped them over, pinning Raleigh’s arms at his side.

“So all that mopping and polishing.” The younger man hummed, biting a line from his navel to his throat. “And bending over...” He dragged his teeth lightly over his chin, their mouths pressed together. “Fucking tease...”

Raleigh rolled his hips and challenged,

“So what are you going to do about it?”

 

Raleigh broached the subject exactly once during their time together.

“Maybe,” He said hesitantly, “Gipsy has the hots for you.”

He waited for the choking to die down.

“You’re serious. You... do you know how much paperwork I have to fill out when that berk shows up?”

“You’re being Australian again.” Raleigh observed. “I feel threatened, should I feel threatened?”

“Rals,” Chuck explained. “My job is important to me.”

“Like the candy stripers.” Raleigh sympathized, his mind going a mile a minute at this expected tidbit. “They get super pissed if I don’t clean up a mess fast enough and...”

“But between you and him.” Chuck said, as though the other man had no interrupted. “No contest.”

“Promise?”

Chuck held out a pinky and dimpled.

“Promise.”

It did not in any way stop him from sabotaging his own dates.

Aside from the rumor that Gipsy Danger had a raging hard-on for Officer Hansen, he’d taken to calling Chuck out like some twisted boyfriend checking his girl’s loyalty.

Yancy smacked him on the head when he found out.

“What does he have that I don’t?” Raleigh demanded in a fit of childish pique because he needed to have his ego stroked.

Chuck looked up unimpressed at Gipsy Danger.

“Better ass.”

“I have an excellent ass.”

“Can’t tell.” Chuck sneered. “For all I know, you use an underwire.”

 

“He’s got a point.” Yancy agreed.

“Are you sure this wasn’t you?” Raleigh asked, squinting at an unflattering photo of himself.

“I’m retired.” Yancy said airily. “But please, do go on telling me about your alter ego’s nonexistent love life.”

 

“Sorry, I got held up...”

Raleigh spun him around and kissed him.

Chuck relaxed into his touch as he never had when Raleigh was Gipsy.

“Not that I’m complaining,” Chuck panted, “But what’s this about?”

“Because I’m lucky.” Raleigh said plainly. “I’m lucky to have you.”

 

_“In the latest news, Officer Chuck Hansen has been kidnapped yet again in a vicious attempt to draw out Shatterdome’s Gipsy Danger...”_

 

“Knifehead?” Raleigh yelled at the entrance of a deep cave. “I’m here!”

Hearing no answer, he glided up the tunnel, feeling unease grow within him exponentially until he finally reached a rounded chamber with lots of complicated machinery and Chuck chained on top of a bomb.

“Oh shit...”

“Stop right there Gipsy Danger!”

Knifehead stalked out of the gloom.

It was hard to describe what the mutated villain looked like to a layman. Mostly, Knifehead was huge, thick and wide-set like someone had an unfortunate encounter with a rhino. Though he had begun as a D-lister, he was one of the few Supers who had managed to break through the ranks as an up-and-coming new villain of the week. It was hard to keep someone like Knifehead behind bars and the man broke out just as easily as he got in.

Raleigh bumped his knuckles together, electricity crackling in the echo-y room.

“I should have known.”

“Ah, ah.” Knifehead tutted at Raleigh’s approach.

He held up a small rectangle with a shiny button on top.

“I press this and your beloved goes... how shall I say... kaboom?”

Chuck screamed obscenities from behind the strip of duct tape.

“What do you want?”

Chuckling, Knifehead set the device beside Chuck’s head. He could see Chuck wincing at the sharp tang of ammonia the man carried about at all times. Sometimes Raleigh wished that he could just dump him in the river to get rid of the smell. But then that would count as environmental pollution and he really didn’t need to give his boyfriend more work than he absolutely had to.

“Oh, what I want? I want many things. I want fortune, I want fame, I want the city.” He turned his head cruelly, his sharp horn digging into Chuck’s forehead. “But most of all, I want you to suffer.”

“Why me?”

The villain spread his hands.

“We are alike, you and I. We do not truly belong to Shatterdome. We just happened upon it. Shatterdome rejects us, yet we stay.”

“You’re wrong.” Raleigh swallowed. “Shatterdome is my home.”

Knifehead said simply, “then why do you wear a mask?”

As though tired with the small talk, the man explained rapidly, “My plan is simple. Your lover is sitting on top of a kiloton of explosive material, enough,” He held up a finger, “To turn this whole mountain into a hole.” He strapped a jetpack to his enormous back, heaving with the effort. “Should you try to follow me, it will go off immediately. But if you stay...” From the top, the sun beamed down on the chamber. “You will have time. But your city will be mine.”

Laughing maniacally, Knifehead declared “Choose Gipsy Danger! Your darling or your fair city?”

Raleigh shook a fist.

“You’ll never get away with this!”

“Oh but I already have.”

 

The engines fired as the jetpack lifted Knifehead up, up and away.

Raleigh hurried to Chuck’s side. Even knowing the kind of language that would come out from the other man’s mouth, he ripped the tape off and got an earful for it.

“What the fuck are you waiting for dipshit?! Go after him!”

“Didn’t you hear him? You’ll die!”

“My life isn’t worth the entire city!”

“Crimson Typhoon will take care of him.”

“Oh for the love of...” Chuck rolled his eyes as he quickly searched for an off switch.

“How do I turn this off?!” Raleigh demanded.

“How should I know?!”

“You were here the whole time!”

“And whose fault is that?!” Chuck accused. “If you’d just get a girlfriend...!”

“I’m gay!”

“A boyfriend!” The younger man roared. “Because of you, I’m about to lose mine!”

He tugged at the wires, recalling everything he’d learned from CSI and Mythbusters.

“I would never break up with you!”

Silence fell upon the cave. Cold sweat sprang from the back from his neck.

“What?” Chuck said flatly.

Raleigh coughed.

“I appreciate you for your mind?”

“No, go back.” The other man said. “What did you say before that?”

Chuck’s voice was calm and even, never a good combination. Shit started to happen whenever he got reasonable. Just like how communism looked good on paper.

When he failed to answer, Chuck growled “ _Ral_ eigh?”

“That’s not how you pronounce my name.” Raleigh said, watching the countdown.

“You fucking—“

“Not now honey, I’m trying to save you remember.”

Chuck sounded like he was in a lamaze class.

“Electrocute me.”

Raleigh jerked his head up so fast he nearly gave himself a whiplash.

“Say that again?”

“I said,” Chuck said slowly as though talking to someone very stupid. “Electrocute me. It’ll short out the parts in the bomb. No fuse, nothing goes boom. You get to save the world.”

Raleigh shouted angrily, “I’m not going to electrocute you, are you insane…?!”

“Not now honey, evil villain to stop remember?” Chuck mocked. “Don’t worry, I can take it. Who knows, it might be enough to make me forget all this.”

“Don’t say that.” He folded their hands together. “I don’t regret this.”

Chuck turned his face away, cheeks slightly pink.

“Then do it.”

“You sure there’s no other way?” Raleigh said helplessly.

“Do you want to save the city or not?”

“For the record, I think this is a really bad idea.”

Chuck caught his eye.

“Noted.”

Raleigh took a deep breath and placed his hand on top of Chuck’s chest.

 

Raleigh saved the girl and saved the city but he didn’t get the girl. There was no girl in the first place. He didn’t get Chuck either. The first hundred messages had filled up his inbox so that nothing could go through. He felt vindicated at first but as the days went by, he sank deeper and deeper into the couch until he felt like he had become one with it.

“Dude...” Yancy said one morning, poking him with a finger. “Gipsy Danger’s missing in action. They all think you’re banging Hansen.”

“If only.” Raleigh sighed, rolling over.

“You saved him.” Yancy said. “You did good.”

He curled up with a miserable whine.

“I tried.” Yancy told the ceiling. Turning away to go to work, he said, “He’s all yours.”

A sharp knee jabbed into his side and Raleigh fell off the couch with a squawk. A laminated rectangle landed on his face and he snatched it up to read, “what the hell is this?”.

“It’s your registration card you fucker.”

Chuck filled his vision and Raleigh couldn’t help but smile at the sour expression and smattering of freckles.

“Chuck!” He exclaimed, sitting up.

“Rals.”

“What are you doing here?”

“Informing you that you’re now officially a part of SDPC’s Super Unit.”

“That’s a thing?”

Lips quirking downward, Chuck confirmed “It’s a thing.”

“Oh um...” Shyly, Raleigh looked down at his feet. “How’ve you been?”

“I got kidnapped for no fucking reason even though I told them Gipsy Danger wasn’t my boyfriend. But it turned out that he is and had been lying to me for this whole time.”

Raleigh winced, his eyebrows raising in delight.

“Wait, _is_?”

Chuck kicked him.

“Why didn’t you just tell me?!”

“You were so angry at Gipsy, how could I?!”

“I wouldn’t have been such an arse...” Raleigh snorted at this and Chuck amended, “I’d been less of one if I’d known my boyfriend was the Super who’s been fucking me over all this time!”

“I didn’t know how to get your attention!” Raleigh protested.

“Normal people talk.” Chuck shot back.

“Can we go back to that part where you’re still my boyfriend, please?”

Chuck sighed and slumped against the couch.

“I’m not breaking up with you Rals.”

“Oh.” He managed a shaky smile. “Good.”

“I am however,” Chuck interrupted, “making you pay for all those times you got me kidnapped...”

“That wasn’t...”

“Carried me to the hospital...”

“It was for your own good and you knew it.”

“Scaring the shit out of me...”

“Okay, that I’m sorry for. Sorry.”

“...and shitting on our dates because you needed your ego stroked.”

Raleigh wilted.

Rolling his eyes, Chuck pulled him up beside him.

“Thanks for saving me by the way.”

Raleigh suddenly laughed.

“What?” Then younger grumbled when he squeezed his hand, warming it between his palms.

“I think this is the first time you’ve thanked me for saving you.”

Chuck snorted. “Don’t get used to it.”

After a while Raleigh said,

“Hey Chuck...”

“...What?”

Raleigh turned to look at him.

“Don’t heroes usually get a kiss?”

Chuck shot him a glare.

“C’mon,” Raleigh coaxed in a hushed voice. “Just a little one... owshitfuck.”

He tumbled off the couch.

“Up and at ‘em Gipsy _Danger_.” Chuck drawled. “Shatterdome needs you.”

“Can’t catch a break.” Raleigh sighed, floating towards the ceiling. “Hey Hansen!” He called. Chuck turned to look. “How about a date tonight, you and me? No kidnapping and no Gipsy Danger.”

There was a slightest hint of a dimple as Chuck swaggered out the door.

“Better hop to it then, the city’s waiting.”

Raleigh pumped his fists.

“I can drop you off!”

Chuck started his car.

“Not on your life.”

 


End file.
